1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data communication apparatus for sending and receiving message information, and index information associated with its communication.
2. Related Background Art
According to a conventional technique known in the art of facsimile, index information such as the name of a sending party, telephone number, communication data, page number and the like is sent in the form of image information constructed of dot matrices, and recorded at the receiving party on the header of recording papers one page after another.
Such index information associated with communication must be recorded on the area outside the nominal recording area of the recording paper, without destroying the subject original (message) information. In view of this, a recording area of about one line or so (using dot matrix characters) is usually assigned to control information associated with its communication (hereinafter called "communication index information"). Therefore, the amount of communication index information to be recorded is limited to such extent. If a large amount of index information is desired to be recorded, the communication index information must be simplified, for example, using an abbreviation or the like, or the message area on the recording paper must be extended.
Conventionally, the communication index information has been recorded on each page of the recording papers at the same area thereof and in the same format. Assuming such a way of recording is performed and a recording area for the communication index information is extended, then the recording paper may be consumed wastefully or the original image information may be destroyed. Specifically, in a case of a facsimile apparatus using recording paper previously cut sheets of into a predetermined size (A4, B5 and so on), there is a possibility of consuming an additional recording paper for recording the communication index information alone.
Contrary to the above, if simplified communication index information is densely recorded within one line without broadening the recording area therefor, there arises a problem that the recorded information is hard to read and understand.